Best Practices joaquim.rocha@cern.ch IT-DSS-TD January 24, 2014
About yours truly Contributor to/author of many Open Source projects Member of the GNOME Foundation Former member of Igalia and Red Hat Currently at the Data Storage Services group at CERN http://www.joaquimrocha.com
I m an egotistical bastard, so I name all my projects after myself. First Linux, now git" Linus Torvalds
What s git Distributed Version Control System (DVCS) Initially written in C by Linus Torvalds Replacement for BitKeeper in Linux kernel development Widely used nowadays, both for new and old projects
What s git
It s the sandbox
Holds the new changes to be committed
Points to the current commit
Working Tree with Changes
Index with Changes
Typical beginners workflow with git: 1 git clone URL or git init. 2 Do stuff... 3 git add --all or git add FILE 4 git commit -m Update" [or another bad description] 5 git push
Best Practices
Adding Files
Adding Files Do NOT: git add * git add. git add --all git add -u.... and unless you re adding a new (unknown to index) file: git add FILE_PATH
Adding Files Please Do: git add --patch
Adding Files git add --patch or git add -p asks you which chunks of code should be added and how! means you review your code before adding it! helps you create atomic commits!
Adding Files: Example [...] if (delegateauthlibpath) loaddelegateauthlib(delegateauthlibpath); + + fprintf(stderr, "WHY THE HELL DOESN T THIS WORK!!"); } AuthChangeFsUid::~AuthChangeFsUid() Stage this hunk \[y,n,q,a,d,/,j,j,g,e,?\]?
Committing
Committing Do atomic commits! Write useful, descriptive commit messages! Don t be afraid of committing (you ll see why later)!
Atomic Commits Sherlock was investigating why the new version of his team s software didn t work...
Atomic Commits He quickly looked at his favorite git UI (which uses git log --oneline log) for clues... 1d60cd2 Update for 1.5.0 817ee03 Innocent stuff... 8341828 Innocent stuff #1... afee627 Innocent stuff #2... d4c29b7 Innocent stuff #3... c3bdb6d Innocent stuff #4... a3e8c35 Innocent stuff #5... fd9f14b Innocent stuff #6... da8a2cf Innocent stuff #7... c2debc0 Innocent stuff #8... 283293c Innocent stuff #9......
Atomic Commits Not finding anything suspicious in the log, Sherlock starts a bisect in order to find the problem! With all the compiling and testing, he spends hours in the bisect before finding the culprit: 1d60cd2 Update for 1.5.0
Atomic Commits Sherlock finds out the commit has more to it than meets the eye... commit 1d60cd23c6597f1d11288644691b582bd531e704 Author: Moriarty <moriarty.indeed@evil-r-us.co.uk> Date: Thu Jun 6 18:06:06 2013 +0100 Update for 1.5.0 Evil stuff because I can! More evil stuff because I can!...
Always write atomic commits!
Write useful commit messages
Write useful commit messages A good commit message: Imperative tense summary, <= 50 chars When necessary, more details can come here, until 72 chars each line. A reference to a bug tracker issue can be added as well: http://bugtracker.earth/issue/1985
Write useful commit messages Bad fixes a crash Awful fix Good Fix crash when performing update The issue was being caused when the Updater was called and a network connection that had been used before is no longer available. https://sherlocksbugtracker.co.uk/issue/1985
Know How to Use References
Know How to Use References Specific References: The current commit: HEAD A hash from some commit, e.g.: d3a7c852d2c789f791b11091894cc71387e562e9 Also works with just a prefix: d3a7c85 A branch, e.g.: master, newfeature A tag, e.g.: release0.9
Know How to Use References Relative References: Referring to previous commits: Commit 1 position before: ref~1 or ref^ Commit 5 position before: ref~5 or ref^^^^^ E.g. a branch s parent commit: newfeature^ Referring to different parents: 1st parent of a commit: ref^1 2nd parent of a commit: ref^2 Nth parent of a commit: ref^n
Use git bisect to track issues
Use git bisect to track issues git bisect helps finding a commit that introduced a bug by making a binary search $ git bisect start $ git bisect bad $ git bisect good HEAD~10... [check until finding the culprit] $ git bisect reset... [fix it]
git reset
git reset Want to undo adding a file (after git add FILE_PATH)? git reset FILE_PATH The file is now in the Working Tree (only) again Index moved back
git reset Want to undo the previous commit? git reset HEADˆ The changes are now only in the Working Tree (you have to add them again before committing) HEAD and Index moved back one step
git reset Want to undo the previous commit but keep it ready to commit? git reset -soft HEADˆ The changes are now in the Index (ready to be committed) HEAD moved back one step
git reset Want to delete the previous commit? git reset -hard HEADˆ It s as if the previous commit didn t happen HEAD, Index and Working Tree move back one step
git reflog
git reflog Sometimes things don t go as expected! E.g.:... $ git commit -m "Very important commit"... $ git reset --hard HEAD^ $ git log --oneline e897f7f Other things... 61be62b Other things #1...... $ NOOOOOOOOOOOOO bash: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO: command not found...
git reflog Luckily, git reflog comes to rescue! $ git reflog e897f7f HEAD@{0}: reset: moving to HEAD^ ca33ef2 HEAD@{1}: commit: Very important commit e897f7f HEAD@{2}: checkout: moving from master to importantfeature... $ git rebase ca33ef2 $ git log --oneline ca33ef2 Very important commit e897f7f Other things... 61be62b Other things #1......
Branches
Branches A branch is simply a pointer to a commit! (unlike other VCS which copied directories...)
Branches Create a new branch: git branch <new-branch> [<start-point>] Delete a branch: git branch -d -D <branch> Rename a branch: git branch -m <old-name> <new-name> List branches: git branch [-r -a] Move into (checkout) a branch: git checkout <branch> Create a branch and check it out: git checkout -b <branch>
Rebase a branch
Merge two branches
Branches Pro tip: Use one branch per feature/bug (contained development) Only merge with master after you re done Remember to rebase your feature branch before merging it to master Specify the origin and branch when pushing (might avoid mistakes) A good use of branches should prevent the need of git cherry-pick
Branches Proposed workflow:... [we re on master] $ git checkout -b newfeature... [make changes] $ git commit -m "New feature" $ git rebase master $ git checkout master $ git merge newfeature $ git push origin master If push fails: $ git pull --rebase
Working with Remote Branches List remote branches: $ git branch -r remotes/origin/head -> origin/master remotes/origin/master remotes/origin/newfeature remotes/origin/newfeature2 remotes/origin/newfeature3
Branches Push a branch to origin: $ git checkout newfeature $ git push origin newfeature
Branches Delete a remote branch in origin: $ git push origin :newfeature
Branches Replace a remote branch in origin: $ git push origin +otherfeature:newfeature It s not advisable to replace branches you share with other people (it breaks other people s branch)
git rebase --interactive
git rebase --interactive git rebase --interactive is a great tool that allows to: Meld commits together Remove commits Edit commits (it stops the rebase and allows to amend a commit) Reorder commits
git rebase --interactive $ git rebase -i HEAD~5 pick d3a7c85 New changes pick b538761 Other changes pick 61be62b Some nice new changes pick e897f7f Update for release 0.9.2 pick ca33ef2 Commit that should have been in the release # Rebase 8d9b5a1..ca33ef2 onto 8d9b5a1 # # Commands: # p, pick = use commit # r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message # e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending # s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit
git rebase --interactive pick d3a7c85 New changes squash b538761 Other changes pick 61be62b Some nice new changes pick ca33ef2 Commit that should have been in the release pick e897f7f Update for release 0.9.2 # Rebase 8d9b5a1..ca33ef2 onto 8d9b5a1 # # Commands: # p, pick = use commit # r, reword = use commit, but edit the commit message # e, edit = use commit, but stop for amending # s, squash = use commit, but meld into previous commit
Name your stash
Name your stash git stash is great for storing changes away temporarily Use git stash save Description of changes" so it s easy to keep track of what s what!
Use repos for different modules
Use repos for different modules Sometimes modules shouldn t be in the same repo A base + plugins project should live in different repos e.g.: GStreamer
Do NOT add every single file
Do NOT add every single file Binary files, distro packages (rpms, debs) and other auto-generated files should not be included in the repo! Upload them somewhere else, a repo should be for source code.
Don t break others repos
Don t break others repos Make sure that you do not change history in main branches (shared with other people)! Be careful when resetting and rebasing Do not force a push to a shared branch
Pull and rebase
Pull and rebase Use git pull --rebase in order to avoid merges from upstream commits.
Other (Pro) Tips
Use git hooks to enforce standards Git hooks can be used to e.g.: make sure the source honors a certain coding style force a commit message to include a bug tracker reference etc.
git clean Be careful with git clean! git clean -xdf will really delete things, no reflog, no nothing! Always dry-run first! $ git clean -nxdf
Use command aliases and auto-completion Use git aliases and auto-completion for extra productivity: git config --global alias.ci commit git config --global alias.co checkout git config --global alias.st status Auto-completion: http://code-worrier.com/blog/autocomplete-git/
Show your HEAD in shell s prompt Change your shell s prompt to show your git branch: http://code-worrier.com/blog/git-branch-in-bash-prompt/ [17:42][~/presentations/git-best-practices(master)]$
Do NOT copy/paste diffs Create patches by using git format-patch Patches of the last 2 commits: $ git format-patch HEAD~2 0001-Some-nice-changes.patch 0002-Some-other-nice-changes.patch You can even send them by email from git using git send-email!
See what your tree looks like Having a global picture of your tree is important! Use git lola: git config --global alias.lola "log --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit --all"... or use tig for an interactive CLI viewer... or use or a graphical tool like gitg
Thank you! Git s logo, CC by Jason Long Linus Torvalds picture, CC by The Linux Foundation Kid picture, CC by Juhan Sonin Monkey picture, CC by Scott Monty Slides and diagrams based in Git: The Stupid Content Tracker by Mario Sánchez Prada